The World Baseball Classic will again air on Fox Sports, with the title game set for the broadcast network.
Fox Sports has secured U.S. rights to next year’s World Baseball Classic and will air the March 17 championship game on the FOX broadcast network, it was announced Tuesday. The previous WBC in 2023 also aired on Fox Sports, but the Japan-United States title game — which culminated in Shohei Ohtani facing his then-Angels teammate Mike Trout in the final at-bat — aired on FS1.
It is not clear if Fox had any competition for the rights, but Netflix earlier this year acquired Japanese rights to the WBC, and it stands to reason that it would have had interest in the U.S. package as well. The three-week, quadrennial event would seem to be an obvious fit for the streamer’s event-oriented strategy.
Netflix has been steadily building a relationship with MLB this year, taking advantage of the opportunity created by ESPN’s February decision to opt-out of its existing contract. The streamer has per Andrew Marchand of The Athletic secured rights to next year’s standalone MLB Opening Night game, the Home Run Derby, and is set to split at least some portion of MLB’s special event games — such as the Field of Dreams Game or this year’s game at Bristol Motor Speedway — with NBCUniversal.
Fox, the highest-paying of the MLB rightsholders, has thus far been shut out of the unexpected rights auction triggered by ESPN’s opt-out. While Fox at one point expressed interest in the Home Run Derby — and per one report by Julia Alexander of Puck even kicked the tires on Sunday Night Baseball — it could by all accounts come away from negotiations with less than it started with, assuming NBCU and Netflix really do acquire some of the special event games that have thus far aired primarily on FOX.
As for next year’s WBC, the FOX broadcast network is set to carry seven games — three of the United States’ Pool B games, two quarterfinals and the previously mentioned title game. The championship would air directly opposite NBC’s Cavaliers-Bucks NBA game, creating a rare weeknight on which two of the “Big Four” broadcast networks are carrying sports. It would also face the NCAA men’s basketball tournament “First Four” on truTV.
All other games in the tournament would air on FS1, FS2, and streaming services Fox One, Tubi and the Fox Sports app.
